4 out of 5

This absolutely has the right tone befitting its title and featured character – probably close to what you’d imagine: a werewolf duded up in US WW II fatigues, blastin’ a gun and raging Kirby style toward the viewer – but just slightly misses out on the details.

So let me settle whatever main debate there could be over the bulk of this book’s content, and state that it’s appropriately ridiculous and tongue-in-cheek hilarious. Black Caravan has struggled with this kind of cheeky stuff, but co-publisher Ridh Woodall, on his lonesome, nails it: our WW II crew gets a role call shot as they approach a Nazi castle, and then they’re fighting aliens in the basement and draculas before the pack’s sergeant has his inevitable transformation… and fights a pretty wild guest star.

Woodall does great on art here, with an ink-heavy style well-balanced by unshowy digital coloring and an interestingly sagacious blend of lettering with and without framing bubbles – and also probably one of the few times when an overly rigid typeface seemed appropriate?

While Rich also hits the comedy and action beats well, some more complex setups seem a bit beyond his abilities, and the werewolf transition makes use of a whole page of static panels to underwhelming effect. This kind of slight wonk has its parallels in the script: the line between having a ridiculous explanation for things and no explanation at all feels blurry, seating us in a position of the lore sometimes feeling half-hearted – not fully camp, but definitely not serious.

But: this was all ultimately in effect much more fun than I was expecting, as some other Woodall / Black Caravan efforts have felt a little forced to fit their genre. Sgt. Werewolf, though, feels like the creator’s calling.